Read article – An extended interview with Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, about the first-ever clinical trial of a generative-AI therapy chatbot—a technology that may someday help relieve the lack of access to mental health providers. “We want to provide something that is a strong evidence-based treatment for folks that generally don’t have it,” Jacobson said.

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, talks about the first clinical trial of a gen-AI therapy chatbot conducted on Therabot, software developed in his lab. “We chose this area because we seek to have real world impacts and there is a massive shortage of providers,” Jacobson said.

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, and Michael Heinz, an assistant professor of psychiatry, are featured in an article about Therabot. “Therabot is not limited to an office and can go anywhere a patient goes,” Heinz said. “It was available around the clock for challenges that arose in daily life and could walk users through strategies to handle them in real time. But the feature that allows AI to be so effective is also what confers its risk — patients can say anything to it, and it can say anything back.”

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry,  is featured in an article about Dartmouth’s Therabot, the first therapy chatbot to undergo a clinical trial. “With Therabot, folks will access and did access it throughout the course of the trial in their daily life, in moments where they need it the most,” Jacobson said.

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is featured in an article about the process of developing Therabot. The model initially learned from conversations on forums between people discussing their mental health crises and was not successful so the team turned to transcripts of therapy sessions. “This is actually how a lot of psychotherapists are trained,” Jacobson said.

Read article – A story on a study led by senior author Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, and first author Michael Heinz, an assistant professor of psychiatry, reporting the results of the first-ever clinical trial of a generative-AI therapy chatbot. “Fine-tuned Gen-AI chatbots offer a feasible approach to delivering personalized mental health interventions at scale, although further research with larger clinical samples is needed to confirm their effectiveness and generalizability,” the scientists concluded.

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is featured in an article about the first-ever clinical trial of a therapy chatbot powered by generative AI. The results showed the Dartmouth-developed Therabot was as effective as a therapist for study participants with depression, anxiety, or an eating disorder. “I’ve been working in digital therapeutics for a long time, and I’ve never seen levels of engagement that are prolonged and sustained at this level,” Jacobson says.

Read article – Saeed Hassanpour, a professor of biomedical data science, is quoted in an article about the use of artificial intelligence in hospitals. “It’s complicated. There are so many nuances that need to be considered,” Hassanpour said.

Read article – Nicholas Jacobson, an assistant professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry, is mentioned in an article about the use of AI chatbots to treat mental health care. Jacobson says that the accessibility and scalability of digital platforms can significantly lower barriers to mental health care and make it available to a broader population.